Chloë Brown's event/performance 'The Detroit Dinner Service' took place in one of the Lodges in the Masonic Temple in Detroit (the world’s largest) on the 4th of April 2016.
The event comprised of a dinner party for 12 inspirational women – women who are responding to the negative situation in Detroit with positivity and creativity – and centered on a meal prepared by the Detroit-based chef and food activist Alison Heeres. The meal was served on a bone china 36-piece dinner service designed by Brown, which is also called 'The Detroit Dinner Service'. Made in Stoke-on-Trent, it uses the drawing Brown made of a route through Detroit to decorate the dinner service. The choice of location for the dinner party is significant – it took place in Palestine Lodge that included Henry Ford in its membership as well as other key figures of the industrial patriarchy in Detroit. The dinner-party-as-art questions the failure of this hidden exclusively male power in relation to the severe situation the city finds itself in, through an event that is exclusively female, in order to draw attention to the largely Do-It-Yourself initiatives that these women are developing, in response to this situation. The guests included artists, poets, activists, filmmakers, urban farmers, journalists, writers, the founder of MOCAD, Marsha Miro and the world famous Motown singer Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas. During the evening the women were asked to deliver a Toast to Detroit, and they were each given an apron to wear throughout the meal. This apron was made by Brown and referenced the ceremonial regalia worn by free masons. These aprons, rather than being made of leather, (the freemasons preferred material), are made of fine white linen and are decorated with purple and green ribbons, the colours of the suffragettes.
The guests included:
Halima Cassells - http://infinitemiledetroit.com/Halima_Cassells.html
Imani Foster - https://jfc2016.topi.com/speaker/imani-s-foster-xsvRA
Kim Kozlowski - http://www.detroitnews.com/story/life/columnists/marney-rich-keenan/2014/10/07/little-free-library-detroit-literacy/16882765/
Cornetta Lane - http://corecitystories.strikingly.com/#sponsors-partners
Faina Lerman - http://www.poppspacking.org/about-popps/
Tiff Massey - http://www.kresgeartsindetroit.org/portfolio-posts/tiff-massey/
Marsha Miro - https://vimeo.com/9785868
Marsha Music - http://www.kresgeartsindetroit.org/portfolio-posts/marsha-music/
Rola Nashef - http://www.kresgeartsindetroit.org/portfolio-posts/rola-nashef/
Tawana Petty - http://www.honeycombthepoet.com/music.html
Martha Reeves - http://www.missmarthareeves.com/id1.html
Lori Sanders - http://www.taylorreadingcorps.org/about.htm
Other participants
Gwen Meyer: urban farmer
Christina deRoos: host, artist and deputy director of Kresge Arts in Detroit and co-director of Spread Art
Grace Higgins Brown: artist - who documented the evening using photography and sound recordings that will be developed into further pieces in the future.
Keywords : Masonic Temple, the Detroit Dinner Service, Detroit, Chloë Brown, artist.